


Homecoming

by coppersunshine (Saeirin)



Category: Leverage
Genre: Eliot Spencer's Cooking, Eliot angsts over food, F/M, Multi, Pretzels, The OT3 gets together, beginning relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-21 01:57:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11933922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saeirin/pseuds/coppersunshine
Summary: Parker starts showing up in Eliot's apartment, so he feeds her. Then she kisses him, and he's not sure what to do.





	Homecoming

He didn’t bother to turn away from his stirring when he heard the tell-tale skritch from the ventilation shafts in his apartment, just raised his voice.  
“What’re you doing in my vents, Parker?”  
Moments later, a blonde head bobbed up in his kitchen.  
“All the others are being boring.”  
“I’m just cooking.”  
She shrugged. “I like to watch you.”  
“Alright. Just stay out of my way.”  
“Why aren’t you cooking for the team?”  
“Sometimes it’s nice to cook for someone who actually appreciates it.” Not that Eliot really thought the team didn’t appreciate his cooking. It’s just they all wolfed it down--even Sophie-- so fast he couldn’t be sure they had tasted it at all.  
He didn’t mind the company, though, not really. When the stew was done, he made up an extra plate for her before sitting down at his kitchen table.  
She poked at it with a finger. “What is it?”  
“Coq au vin. Just try it, Parker.”  
She licked the sauce off her fingertip.  
“What do you feel?” he asked.  
She licked off another fingertip, considering.  
“Home.”

It became a routine, somehow. When they weren’t on the con, on the nights when the team wasn’t eating together or Hardison was busy, Parker would show up in his apartment and eat whatever he fed her. He always asked her what she felt. Sometimes she didn’t know, but more and more she did. He took pleasure in crafting dishes for her, trying to capture a specific feeling and watching her figure it out.  
Mostly she’d disappear while he was doing the dishes, back out through the vent. He didn’t mind. Him and Parker were a different kind of people, and they needed their space. He didn’t admit even to himself how much he liked it the nights she’d stay, babbling at him while he cleaned the kitchen. 

Eliot wouldn’t have said he was lonely, if you were forward enough to ask and he were inclined to answer. How could a man be lonely when he had the team to handle? So many people talking, all at once. It was overwhelming, sometimes. A lot to adjust to, having people in his ear, to have to worry about others and keep them all safe.  
Truth is, Eliot had been alone for so long he wasn’t even able to recognize loneliness. Just accepted it as a part of life. He brushed away the need for people like brushing away crumbs, a nuisance to be rid of as soon as possible. You shut yourself off for long enough and it becomes familiar, comfortable. Easier than dealing with the messiness of emotion, and the weakness of it. 

Trust was a tricky thing. It didn’t come all at once. For Eliot, it often didn’t come at all. There was no one Eliot trusted completely. Not even the team. The only person he could really trust was himself, and even that he wasn’t sure of sometimes.  
Sure, he trusted the team with some things. More than he did most people. They couldn’t have been a team if he didn’t. But there was always something lurking, reminding him that the only person he could really rely on was himself.  
It was a surprise, then, when he realized he trusted Parker, absolutely and completely. Found himself telling her more and more. About his past, about the military, about who he used to be. About who he wanted to be. Parker took it all in stride, without the coddling he would have gotten from Sophie or nervous babbling from Hardison. He supposed her own life had been fucked up enough she didn’t really see his own as especially horrifying, especially since he kept away from the worst parts, the ones he didn’t want to remember. He took comfort in her complete inability to understand normal.  
She told him stuff too. Heists she’d pulled, people she’d met as a kid on the streets. Stories from jobs gone wrong, and from jobs gone right. He gave her a few of those in return, but not too many--his job went wrong and he was shot and on the run. It had happened often enough. More frequently he talked about people too. You live on the wrong side of the law, hopping around the world, and you meet plenty of strange characters.  
He told her his secret by accident. It just kind of slipped out, with all the pieces of his life. Stopped being so careful, and a name crossed his lips. He froze, looking at her sideways, but she didn’t seem to notice. Didn’t say anything, anyway, didn’t see the need to remark on the fact Eliot had just admitted to not being entirely straight. 

It was a shock when she kissed him, though he supposed, looking back, that it shouldn’t have been. Eliot had always been good at not seeing what he didn’t want to. Just kissed him on the lips one night, him holding a plate and a towel, working on the dishes.  
“What was that?”  
“I like you.”  
“Does Hardison know?” His voice was even huskier than usual.  
“He won’t mind.”  
“You can’t just kiss people without talking to your boyfriend, Parker.” Eliot turned back to the dishes, hiding his face.  
“He likes you too.”  
“...what?”  
He turned around, but she was gone. 

It made the next team meeting a little awkward, but Eliot was a professional, and if he came off a little grouchier than usual no one complained (or maybe it was that they all had the good sense not to). And if he was a little distracted, he certainly had reason to be.  
Eliot had done a very thorough job convincing himself that he was not jealous of Parker and Hardison’s relationship, that he was happy for them and also that he was better off alone anyway. He knew it wasn’t right to feel so much about a woman who was in a relationship with someone else, with a man he respected and felt just as deeply about, and so he squashed his feelings deep and pretended they weren’t there, hoping if he starved them enough they’d go away. And mostly they did.  
Parker’s kiss had fed his emotions, dragged them out of hiding. That she liked him--that Hardison liked him, too--it amazed him. He almost doubted it, thinking that he must have misunderstood; it was hard to imagine how something so blatant could be a misunderstanding. 

Eliot scowled over his beef bourguignon, chopping up onions and preparing the meat. And maybe the onion was a little strong is all. Nothing else, not feelings creeping in. 

It wasn’t a skritch this time, but more of a banging.  
“Go away, Parker.”  
Hardison’s muffled voice came from his vent. “Come on man, she made me come through the ventilation shaft, can’t even knock on the door like civilized people, and you can’t even talk?” He sneezed. “Man, you know I got allergies.”  
Parker didn’t say anything, just showed up next to him, stealing a bite of raw potato. “I was afraid you’d disappear.”  
“I’m not going anywhere, Parker. Just thinking.”  
Hardison’s huffing and puffing drew their eyes over to the vent where he was awkwardly climbing out.  
“Seriously?”  
“Hey,” he panted, “Don’t give me that look. Eliot wouldn’t even fit in the damn vent.”  
He collapsed onto the floor.  
“I like you,” said Parker. “And Hardison likes you.”  
“Yeah, I got that.”  
“So?”  
“So what? I ain’t exactly sure what you want.”  
Hardison stood up and coughed. “Eliot, we like you.”  
Eliot scowled.  
“I know, I know, Parker said. But, we...well, we’d-”  
“We want to date you,” said Parker.  
“Yeah!” said Hardison. “That is, if you’re, you know, into us, at all, if not, that’s cool, that’s cool, and we can leave right now, I understand if this ain’t exactly your kind of thing, but uh, I think it would be good, and Parker does too so we thought maybe you might want to since you seemed kind of left out when we started dating and all? You disappeared, and Parker missed you so she started hanging out here and then I realized I missed you too, so we figured out that we like you, and uh, yeah.”  
There was a long pause.  
“I need to think.”  
Parker nodded. “I had to do a lot of thinking, too, before I knew I was ready for pretzels. We’ll leave now, if you want.”  
“Thank you.”  
“Yeah, uh, just, we’ll be here, Eliot. If that’s what you decide.”  
They left--Parker out the vent again, Hardison wisely choosing to take the door. Eliot locked it behind him. 

It had been a long time since Eliot had dated anyone. Dating-dating, not just  
casual sex. It wasn’t exactly practical, his line of work. Much easier to have a good time and keep moving on.  
He knew he loved them, Parker and Hardison. Had known for a while. Accepted his weakness for them, as much as he could. But love was tricky. Loving someone didn’t always mean you wanted to date them. They were his family. And now he needed to figure out if he wanted something more than that.  
He didn’t sleep much that night, though he should have, with a job the next day. Couldn’t, with all the doubts and possibilities keeping him awake. 

The job went smooth enough--as smooth as they ever did--despite the weight hanging over Eliot’s head. They were a team, no matter what else happened. It eased his fears somewhat, even if he still didn’t know what he thought about things. 

It stayed that way for a while, this odd limbo state. They were good about it, giving him his space, and it was so easy. He ignored things for a while, just trying to focus on the jobs. Pretended things were back to the way they had been before. And it worked, until it didn’t.  
After Washington, though, he knew he had made his choice. Knew he needed them. Needed to be with them. No other options were acceptable. Not after that. 

It was a week before he did anything about it. Eliot was not the best at expressing himself. Especially with something like that, the vulnerability too hard.  
So he invited them over to his apartment.  
“We’re doing movie night at my place. Show up around seven.”  
So maybe it was less of an invitation and more of an order. It didn’t matter though. They knew what he meant. Parker perked up, opened her mouth.  
“Can--”  
“Yeah, Parker, I’ll make the damn frosting for you, if you promise not to eat it with your fingers this time.”  
Hardison laughed. “Mama just gets carried away. Maybe keep to a spoon this time, huh, babe?”  
“It tastes better from my fingers.”  
Eliot sighed. “Bring something to watch, okay Hardison? Otherwise we’re doing Tombstone again and I don’t know I can deal with your complaining.”  
“Alright, sure.”

He put the tray in the oven just before seven and started assembling the plates. A variety of mustards in small dishes on his own plate. Frosting in a couple of flavors on Parker’s, and a dish of peanut butter. Hardison’s plate was harder, but he went with a sweeter honey mustard and one he made special--sweet, with a tang of orange.  
The door opened a few minutes after seven. Hardison must have won the vent vs. door argument this time, even if he couldn’t stop Parker from picking the lock. Eliot would have been disappointed if she didn’t. He smiled when he heard the scrape of a magnet easing his deadbolt open.  
“Go ahead and sit down,” he called from the kitchen. ‘I’ll be ready in a minute.”  
He could smell the bake, now, and it eased his nerves somewhat, like cooking always did. Centered him.  
The timer dinged, and he finished the plates he had made up, then brought them out.  
“Eliot, man,” said Hardison. “I dunno what you made but I hope you made extra.”  
He set down the plates before them. Parker gasped slightly. Hardison grinned like he’d just pulled off the world’s greatest grift.  
“Pretzels!”  
“You sure, Eliot?”  
“Yeah. I’m sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm putting off editing my Vampire!Eliot fic and I found this in the folder so I polished it up. 
> 
> Not so much Hardison in this one. It was originally supposed to be just a Parker/Eliot cooking fluff fic, but I am apparently incapable of writing something sans OT3 and Eliot angst. 
> 
> coppersunshine on tumblr if you want to say hey!


End file.
